Trying out different cuisines at different places is what most foodies love to do. From Japanese, Korean and Italian to American and Mexican, restaurants around the world serve dishes from a host of different, exotic cuisines. In India, we have many regional cuisines too - from Kashmir to Kerala - and let’s just agree that each of them has its own fan following, not just in the country but abroad too. South Indian food, for instance, is loved by the Americans as well. But have you ever come across anyone who loves an Indian dish so much that they place an order speaking in one of the languages from the region? May sound quite unusual, but that’s exactly what has happened in this case. Read on to know more.
A YouTuber from the US recently visited a couple of South Indian restaurants in New York and surprised the owners there by speaking the Tamil language while placing the order for his food. Surprising, right? Well, one wouldn’t assume that an American would know the Tamil language. And hence, as expected, the respective owners of the South Indian restaurants were awestruck to find this man speaking Tamil fluently. And now, a video of this incident has gone viral on social media.
In the clip, the man visits four eateries in the city that specialise in South Indian dishes - starting with a local dosa food cart, which is said to be extremely popular among locals in NYC. Upon meeting the YouTuber speaking fluent Tamil, the food vendor as well as the bystanders were pleasantly taken aback. The YouTuber ordered masala dosa, Pondicherry dosa and uttapam from his cart, while the owner went on to discuss the history of the language with him.
The second restaurant owner was so happy to see the man order food in Tamil that he offered to give it to this Tamil-speaking customer for free. Next, he visited a Chettinad cuisine-inspired restaurant, where he ate chicken Chettinad. The woman operating the restaurant was spellbound to see the man speak to her in Tamil. Last on the Youtuber’s list was a Sri-Lankan Tamil restaurant where he enjoyed a kind of chicken and roti combination.
Take a look at the full viral video below:
Shared on YouTube by @Xiaoma, whose real name is Ari, the video has over 2 million views and 67k likes. People on the internet were amazed to see how quickly the American YouTuber learnt the language and was also able to place orders in it so confidently.
Take a look at some of the comments that people wrote:
"My favorite thing about Xiaoma is that he's not only a man of many languages but a total food critic. I mean, he says everything is delicious but I also believe that it is (sic)."
"The fact that you can have a conversation within 3 weeks of learning it is absolutely mind-blowing."
"As a Malaysian who had Tamil speaking friends, I can confirm that we could eat for free if we could speak Tamil."
"That is the best respect you could show someone. Learning their language because you want to and not need to."
What did you think of the video? Let us know.